The Last Prussian
by ARC N7
Summary: On a Routine-Mission on Eden Prime, Commander Shepard found a strange Prothean Artifact and it sent her an unlikely ally, from another time. Ripped out of his life and Fatherland, he joins the Commanders struggle to take out a the Rouge Spectre Saren. Thankfully, this isn't the first fight of his long carreer and the old Field Marshal still has a few tricks up his sleeve...
1. Chapter 1

Captain Anderson, Councillor Udina, Admiral Hackett and Commander Shepard could only stare at the man, that currently sat in the special isolated cell inside the Arcturus-Station. Even an as strictly monitored agency, as the Systems Alliance had it's dirty secrets. Of course, there was a place to hide these secrets if needed. The Parliament had a very strong grip on it's military. Some people would say, not strong enough. With "some people", members of a certain race with blue skin were meant.

But the truth was, that the Systems Alliance Defence Force wasn't even remotely ready for a war. The High Command was granted no flexibility and the Parliament had the last word on the strategic level.

Elysium payed the price for it, when Slavers attacked.

Commander Jane Shepard was able to fend off the attackers and Commander Karen Hoth led the brutal counterattack. Fleet Commander Jonas Riley ordered an immediate strike at the base on Torfan. Officially it was a slaver-base. Top secretly, it was an illegal shipyard of the Batarian Hegemony.

It was only two hours after the attack on Elysium was over, when Riley disobeyed the orders to wait until a diplomatic solution is found. He jumped straight into the enemy perimeter and started firing everything. Half of the 2nd Fleet of the Batarian Hegemony was destroyed, while the small Human Strike Force lost 80% of their own ships.

On the ground Karen Hoth gained infamy, when her Battallion stormed the base of the "Slavers". They fought against Special Forces and Batarian Regulars. Her whole Company has gone through the meat grinder, in an insane suicide-attack. Their weapons were broken after 3 Days of fighting and in the End they had to make a charge with improvised Bajonets, Trench Maces and a few Sidearms. Commander Hoth and Major Kyle were the only survivors, but it was effective. The whole complex was stormed and and the Batarians were unprepared to face the Soldiers in Melee. In the end Karen Hoth simply slaughtered everyone inside and freed the remaining captured slaves, only armed with a Knife and a Pistol.

After the Battle all POW's were executed by her order.

It was thanks to the Council, that the incident didn't trigger a war.

Torfan was Batarian Territory and got assaulted by a Human Fleet. Elysium was Human Territory and some of the attackers Shepard killed, were Batarian Special Forces.

The Council threatened to revoke the colonisation-rights for the Traverse of both Nations and give them to other Member-Races.

It worked and all involved factions agreed to blame the attack on Terminus-Pirates and this made the Counterattack look like an act of Revenge.

Not many knew the truth.

A few of those who knew, stared through the one-sided window and observed the old human man inside the cell.

His Uniform was gray, like his thinning hair. Both fitted each other. While the Uniform was dull, dark and conservative, his thinning Hair bordered between grey and white. He seemed, like he was ripped straight out of a historical picture.

"Oh, the irony...", Commander Jane Shepard muttered to herself, not hearable to the others and continued to inspect the man.

He seemed completely gray, with the only exeption being his white, but tanned, skin tone, some Medals orderly lined along the proper locations of the Uniform and a few decent golden trims. The two bars on his collar-tabs seemed to shine in a bright silver, despite just being dyed cotton.

The only thing that seemed out of place, were these brown eyes. They were the only indication, there was some kind of life inside this man, appearantly made of cold stone.

The old man simply glared at the door, while sitting in a perfect stiff position. Quite a feat, considering the amount of physical damage to his body, the Alliance-Doctors had to repair.

He had this air of authority, confidence and slight arrogance around him, that demanded respect.

He wore no Handcuffs. His captors did not bother, to restrain him.

They could deal with, what they assumed to be a frail old man.

Commander Jane Shepard just shook her head, while glaring at Admiral Hackett.

"This is wrong, Sir."

The elderly Admiral of the Fifth Fleet turned his head towards her.

"Shepard, this is the best option we currently have available. You know, the Parliament will charge him with murder, as soon as they find out."

She just snorted.

"Or with war crimes, crimes against peace, genocide..."

Udina sharply retorted: "Since when did you play after Hoth's rulebook, Shepard. Usually you find an excuse to give every kind of scum a second chance. Remember Elysium?"

The Redhead struggled, but swallowed her urge to punch Udina in the face for that comment.

"That was something else! This is a war-criminal of a calibre, Balak can merely dream to be! Plus Balak had hostages."

"Yes, and it took this psychotic bitch HOTH, to free them from enemy territory, because of your unwillingness, to make this sacrafice! Do you know what political shitstorm I had with the Council?!", the politician yelled.

Jane wanted to continue the argumentation, when she felt a hand descend on her shoulder. Anderson.

"Shepard. Calm down. We don't know the situation. If I didn't knew you, I would have thought this report to be a bad joke. A massive spike of Radiation while investigating Alien-Artifacts and suddenly a, to quote, "Portal" appears and spills out a General with multiple crates full of ancient Infantry-Weapons."

Shepard quickly put her temper on the leash again and stated: "Does this change the fact, that we are harbouring a long dead war-criminal?"

Hackett stepped in at that point.

"Exactly, Commander. Long dead."

Both the Marine and the Captain raised their eyebrows on that.

"Care to elaborate?", inqired Udina.

"History Lessons at the Officers Academy. This man...", the Admiral pointed at the prisoner through the Glass, "Is confirmed dead since more than two hundred years. "The Last Prussian". His Biography by that Author I don't remember was kinda inaccurate, but you are still looking at a man who knows more about war, than any of us."

Shepard's Green Eyes narrowed at the obvious admiration in the voice of her superior.

"Sir, with all due respect, I don't like where this conversation is going."

The elderly Admiral turned his eyes away from the Prisoner and looked the Commander in the eyes.

"Shepard. I know your opinions, but I consider it. He might be a valueable asset in that way. But what is more important, is that he could tell us details about the circumstances of his arrival. If the eggheads are right, the Hegemony could be one of our lesser Problems."

Udina wasn't far behind to add: "Then we should start with the interrogation already. We are only speculating. If I see proof that he is an asset and not a liability, I back the idea."

Shepard opened the door to the small steel gray room and began to muster the man again, if just for show.

The old man narrowed his eyes at her entrace. She wore her Dress Uniform, for this official matter. Usually she preferred a simple Hoodie, but she wasn't on the Normandy. Arcturus was the fucking Capitol of the Alliance. Some formality was required after all.

It seemed, he was mustering her, like she did. What unnerved her, was that arrogant glare. She had seen it often, when dealing with Officers of the Turian Hierarchy. Like they were the superior beings. Some Humans seemed to share that trait.

"I guess you know why you are here?", she began her usual procedure of interrogating a criminal.

"I shot two of your Militiamen in the head and now cut the attitude. Ask the real questions. You are OSS or SOE, not a policeman.", answered the man with his voice drooling of hostility. But surprisingly in English.

Jane was not suprised at his bluntness. That was typical for this kind of stubborn, close-minded General. She was a bit surprised at his mention of an organisation called "OSS".

Through her multi purpoused in-ear translator, she heard Anderson filling her in. "The OSS and SOE were the Allied Black-Ops during World War 2."

Jane pretended to read through the report she wrote herself and answered the prisoner.

"Oh, you seem to be the direct type. Then share your viewpoint of what happened with us. Or do you want to discuss this matter with a lawyer? I assure you, in your current situation, I am the closest thing to one."

The expression of dawning realization on his face told Shepard, that the trick worked and he bought it.

"So I am a political prisoner.", he stated.

'Oh.', she silently thought.

That was not what Shepard wanted him to believe.

"I am sorry, probably I did not make myself clear. You are not a political prisoner. But currently, I am the one person that will be the most compassionate with you."

She clearly saw, that he enjoyed his small psychological victory and was about to push further.

"Then I am a Prisoner of War and my only answer to your questions will be following. Generalfeldmarschall Gerd von Rundstedt. Oberkommando der Wehrmacht. Dienstnum... Service Number, 127609. I am not allowed to give Information to the enemy, other than Name, Rank and Number. Giving away military intelligence to the enemy equals High-Treason and will be punished by death. Commander Shepard, either you make your intentions and my status clear, or I assume I am a Prisoner of War and expect proper treatment according to the Treaty of Genf."

Now, this was a hit that struck Jane Shepard at her most sore point. Her morality. She slowly understood, she underestimated the Old Marshal. He actually had a talent at dealing with other people, hidden under his arrogant attitude.

Seeing that Rundstedt verbally cornered her, she had no choice, but to say the truth. Like her beliefs demanded. But at the same time, it seemed to be a good alternative to a regular questioning. She wasn't dealing with the random captured Smuggler, she captured with the Normandy now and then. This was a sharp-minded, but arrogant Officer. He managed to reverse the situation, into him interrogating his interrogator. Jane decided to let him believe he is in control. He didn't knew, that every Information he slips is more valueable than anything she could say.

In his arrogance, he would make mistakes.

"Your situation is unclear. See... You suddenly appeared out of nowhere on one of our Outer Colonies. Multiple Marines tried to arrest you, but you killed them with an unidentified weapon. We don't know what Status you have. If you cooperate, we can find out together."

"I understand.", the German said with the edge vanished from his voice, "What Nation or Organisation do you represent? What I saw until you knocked me out, does not match any information of recent NATO-Technology Upgrades."

There! Jane found the point of divergence. The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation was founded after the Liberation of Germany. In 1949, the Treaty was signed, to counter the threat of a possible Invasion of Europe.

"I am representing the Systems Alliance and currently, our records say, that you are dead. This leads to quite a few complications regarding your status."

It wasn't that much of a lie. She just left out exactly how long, he was dead and buried. Probably a team of scientists was trying to locate the ancient grave and gather DNS-Samples. The implications of what sat in front of her, were too grave to be left unconfirmed.

"So, you are not NATO? I am not stupid. You are obviously not. Even the Yankees wouldn't have such a sloppy discipline, but your Weaponry is too advanced. If you have Information about what exactly happened, I would be willing to limited cooperation. You were there, when it happened."

Again, that caught Jane a bit offguard. He remembered her. When she found him, she wore her Helmet and no nametag. She quickly remembered that the man was good at reading people.

"Okay, but if you tell the truth and you actually are Gerd von Rundstedt, this Information might be shocking to you."

She made a short pause and continued.

"I am part of the N7 Special Operations Unit. I was on the Colony Eden Prime to investigate an anomaly at a recently uncovered Alien-Artifact. An underground bunker, where we found a machine, that stored large amounts of..."

"Element Zero.", he muttered.

Bingo.

"How do you know that?"

Silence.

It could only mean she got him. He knew something about Eezo, so he had to know something about the artifact.

"Anyways. We searched the building for any threaths and covered our scientist team. Then we found the unknown Ring-Formed Object."

Shepard stopped circling around the completely motionless Prisoner snd looked in his eyes.

"Then we saw a blue glow inside the Ring and multiple crates along with you flew out. You immediately grabbed one of the Rifles inside the crates and fled behind a short wall into cover. Then you immediately opened fire on my men and killed two of them with Headshots. Corporal Alenko immediately hit you with a Shock-Grenade and we took you here."

Shepard sat down at the chair in front of the Old General and bowed herself a bit over to him.

"So, Mister Rundstedt you could help me sort this mess out between fellow Officers. Or you choose to rot in this cell, until some buerocrate decides to charge you with murder and turns this whole thing into a big mess. Your decision."

If Shepard would have been an arrogant person, she would probably gratulated herself for pushing exactly the right buttons in the General's brain. But she wasn't that way. She was a Paragon, so she just glared the Man down, while smiling on the inside. It wasn't hard to see, that the old General was disgusted not to be in control of his fate, so he said:

"I cooperate."

He adjusted his stance on the chair that slipped a few millimetres out of the correct position and began to recall the information about his arrival and all details, that the Commander should know about.

... ... ... ... ...

So, now that this is done, I want to say a few things.

I know that my chapters are not long. I try to compensate this with Quality. My Problem is, that in the time I write thousand words, others write 10k.

Next thing: My political opinions are not reflected by the characters. But I admit that I agree with some of the viewpoints about WW2, that will be mentioned.

About my cast for this story:

I had this fresh Idea to send a Wehrmacht General into Mass Effect.

My choice was difficult, because there were multiple candidates.

- Walter Model

Pro: Defensive Genius, Much Information, Frontline-Officer

Con: Convinced Nazi

- Erich von Mannstein

Pro: One of the greatest military Strategists of all times, Prussian Officer

Con: Arm Chair General, Self-Righteous

- Johannes Blaskowitz

Pro: As close to a Paragon, as a militant East-Prussian can be.

Con: Nearly no Information

- Rommel

Pro: Popular, political correct

Con: Obvious and it feels overused

- Heinz Guderian

Pro: Father of Modern Warfare, No Nazi

Con: Not fun to write

- Paul Hausser

Pro: A good General

Con: Founder of the Waffen-SS

- General Hoth

Pro: A father to his men

Con: Antisemitic Mass Murderer

- Joachim Peiper

Pro: Interesting Personality

Con: Nazi, War Criminal (But at least he had the guts to take the responsibility for crimes he did not order).

- Gerd von Rundstedt

Pro: Most interesting Personality, competent Commander, Veteran, Prussian

Con: He is very old

Until next time.


	2. Chapter 2

Generalfeldmarschall Gerd von Rundstedt stood at the balkony of his appartment inside the new R&D Facility of the Wehrmacht a bit outside of Düsseldorf and stared at the horizon, where the sun was slowly rising above the skyline of building for Heavy Industry.

Being a Field Marshal had it's perks.

One of them, was that the remaining Nazi-Lobbyist pigs seemed to think, they could gain his favor with less then subtle attemts at bribery. Like the room he was residing in, during his visit.

Tastefully fornitured and with all kinds of small luxuries.

All these kind of things, that you quickly loose interest in, after a few hours of French Artillery-Shelling. This kind of mindset, made the NS-Elite little better than the plutocratic Americans, in Rundstedts eyes. The kind of people, who only survived the Rebellion, because of their usefulness.

The old Soldier's thoughts drifted back, how he got into this whole situation.

He just did not knew, where it all started. His slow fall from loyalty.

When he disobeyed the order to halt the Tanks in front of Dunkirk? Probably. It was the first time he actually disobeyed a direct order. Mocking or cursing idiotic superiors, was something that could be overlooked inside the officers corps.

The Führer gave direct order to stop the advance at Dunkirk and let Göring bomb them out.

Back then, Rundstedt couldn't have agreed more, on the military level. A prolonged Siege, to starve off the whole Royal Army with minimal casualties.

But this decision wasn't a matter of strategy. It was politics.

It was the first time Hitler challanged the Wehrmacht directly. When he cheated the Idiots Blomberg and Fritsch of their positions, it was a provocation. The SS filled the gap.

Everyone, exept the diehard loyalist Wilhelm Keitel, knew that the sole purpouse of the SS was to replace the Wehrmacht one day.

Rundstedt hated it when politics interfered in his Strategy.

He had ordered Guderian to continue his attack.

In the end, Rundstedt was quite relieved, that it turned out to be genius.

Guderian cought the Brits at the retreat. Churchill already started to mobilize every ship of the Island, to evacuate the remnants of the Royal Army.

At the end of the Battle, Great Britain lost all of his remaining armed forces and a majority capitulated at the beach.

It wasn't quite the same as Kiev, but much more important.

Germany was in the position to broker a peace with the West. The attack on the Soviet Union was inevitable. Wilhelm Canaris had collected enough proof to justify an attack.

Of course the Americans saw that another way, but everyone knew: The self absorbed Americans would only enter the war if Göring would bomb the East Coast.

But the Führer was so foolish to think, he could get a better deal out of it. He decided to wait with the peace until Suez falls and the Italians achieved their own war-goals. Japan's interests were not regarded that important. After all, the Alliance was just born out of the coincident, that both Nations fought the same enemies.

Of course this decision resulted in an outrage inside the High Command, Rundstedt wasn't part of yet back then.

The Officers of the Wehrmacht had a fitting word for the Italians: Erntehelfer. Harvest-Helpers.

Expeditions were sent to Africa, Jugoslawia and Greece. Luckily the Brits were trying to ship as many troops to their Island as possible, until Operation Sealion starts. Including troops of the Commonwealth.

Egypt, Indochina, Gibralta and Greece fell, after 4 Months.

Then, Hitler started Operation Barbarossa.

A neccesary step, but a bit too early. The chances were good, but Germany would be in danger of risking a war on two Fronts, in the case of an American Intervention. When America entered the Great War, they brought fresh troops to relieve the French and Brits.

This was something that had to be prevented, this time.

When the Japs moved closer to the USA and Hitler ordered the attack on the Soviet Union, Roosevelt was forced to prepare for the case that their neutrality couldn't be maintained.

Then Japan got greedy and striked at Pearl Harbor.

That was probably the moment, where everything started to collapse and the OKW decided to limit the damage with all means neccesary.

Rundstedt quickly focused himself again and shoved the thoughts about the past years aside. He had a few Nazi-Scientists, to meet.

He left the comfortable Room in the 1. Story of the Building and strived towards the elevator. It had no door and wasn't very estethical. Just a grey cage of metal with a solid floor.

It took a moment of hitting the botton repeatedly with force, to get a reaction out of the thing.

Gerd really hated these things. They made the matter of internal transportations way easier, sure. But they were just so uncomfortable. He would prefer good old stairs any time. 'Hopefully', he thougtht, 'the Wehrmacht buys a few of the better american models as soon as trade normalizes.'

When he exited the cage deep under the surface the General cynically hoped, that the profiteers of the old Regime developed much better weapons than elevators.

The facility was a bunker. Build for secrecy and security. Since Manstein crossed the Ural, the Soviets were getting crafty and started big campaingns of Spec-Ops against the Reich. Wilhelm Kanaris was good, but the Russians were thinking very far out of the box. In their desperation, they tried to steal research, sabotage factories, assasinate Officers and disrupt supply-lines.

They already developed their own Sturmgewehr. A beast of a weapon, called the AK 47. Kanaris already announced to his Agents, that he want's Mister Kalashnikov on his payroll, as soon as the Soviet Union falls.

The elevator arrived at the weapons-testing area and a dark blonde haired young man greeted him.

It took Rundstedt a few moments to notice, that the boy was an Oberst. He wore the fearsome black uniform of the Reichsgarde. Basically, it was the part of the Waffen SS, that stayed loyal to the Reich instead of the dead Führer.

They were repurposed to be the Pretorian Guard of the reestablished German Empire.

The unit-badge on his sleeves and the officers cap read "2. Brandenburger", which identified him as part the mechanized arm of the Reich's Special Forces Unit. Officially part of the Guard, but the Brandenbrugers actually answered to Wilhelm Kanaris first. And the plotting bastard used them to great effect.

"Good morning, Herr Generalfeldmarschall. Did you have a good travel?"

"Sure, Oberst. It was very comfortable, but could we just get over with this tour? I want to be back at the Eastern Front tomorrow."

The Oberst seemed relieved by this. Gerd couldn't tell, if he should feel insulted by this, or be happy that the man shared his opinion, so the Marshal just decided to feel nothing about that. It was easier.

"Thank's, Sir. I hope that I can return to my Kampfgruppe, as soon as this "Stargate" project is finished."

The Oberst started to walk through the floor, towards the origin of constant rifle-fire. Probably the shooting-range.

"What is your name, Oberst?"

"Joachim Peiper. Former LSAH. Now Laison-Officer for the OKW."

Rundstedt was a bit surprised by that.

"The Führer's Tentguard?", he half exclaimed in surprise and quickly cursed on the inside, to still adress this Bohemian Corporal as his leader. This Monster deserved to be disgraced and rejected in the german peoples minds, but it was hard for an Officer, not to admire what he actually achieved.

"Yes. Not my finest hours, but my KG held the line at Grosny when my overzealous comrades decided to fight the Wehrmacht."

Rundstedt didn't reply to that. He gave a respectful nod of apology.

"Good to hear, that there was some conscience inside the Waffen SS. I have heard some rumors about your assingnments, Peiper. You mostly sounded like the clishé of the blinded glory-hunting Nazi-Punk. Do you think I will regret repurpousing the remnants of the SS as the new Imperial Guard?"

That the young officer didn't walk exactly in a straight line and slightly decreasing his speed told an experienced Regiment-Commander, that the man had enough self-discipline, to pass as a good Prussian. No expression of anger in his body language, exept this slight decrease in concentration.

Peiper turned his head to his superior and remarked: "No, Sir. But I don't think a Prussian Armchair-General is in the position to judge the Waffen SS. We didn't request to be at the front for no reason. What the Einsatzgruppen did, was not exactly a secret and we didn't join the Waffen-SS, for that lunacy. At least now we are the kind of Elite, we wanted to be. Plus, it's a bit hypocritical to accuse an Oberst of using tactics for own ambition, while you decide the Strategic Deployment of..." Peiper then realized, that he was argueing with the one Person in charge of Wehrmacht and Reich. Plus, being a Junker and known to bark down politicians (even Hitler), gave Gerd vom Rundstedt a kind of fearsome reputation inside the lower Ranks of the Heer.

"Euphemisms, Oberst."

"Sir?"

"Good arguments. Use more euphemisms and indirect accusations, to be sure. Walter Model would have punched you in the face for that. Or shot in unpleasent places. Depends on his mood."

The two officers were silent for a moment, checked if anybody was listening and then started to laugh together.

At the weapons-range Peiper walked straight to a simple wooden table.

He took an Assault Rifle from it an held it up.

"The eggheads finally took some advice from common grunts. We have a whole new generation of German Military Equipment ready for deployment."

He walked over to Rundstedt and showed the Rifle.

"Our new Sturmgewehr 47. It is every grunts dream. They kept the appearance of the 44, but it's a way better weapon. It's roughly the same lenght, but they included some kind of recoil-dampener. Rate of fire is the same and precision is really good at long range too. Just not really that useful against a tide of conscripts. It's better for fighting in cities. The whole interior is based on the AK, so maintaince shouldn't be a problem."

He handed the Rifle to the General, who examined it carefully and did tested the ergonomics. Then he shot a few times at a marker in the far concrete wall.

It was heavy, but seemed very stable. The Assault Rifle was slightly shorter than the original StG44, wich was probably welcome for troops fighting in urban engagements.

"Why the wooden parts?", Rundstedt queried.

"I test-fired it. Nearly burned my hand in rapid-fire. This thing can shoot as long as you have ammo, but it gets hot. The wood cools down faster, as long as it don't catches fire. Did once after 5 Mags in a row. Unpleasent, if outside of Russia. But in winter, it should warm the hands just fine, so we deliver the metal-versions to the East and the wooden to the Rhine and the Japaneese Rebels."

"You know about our involvement?"

"Yes. I'm high enough in the Abwehr, to know. Plus, Skorzeny trusts me."

Rundstedt laid back the Rifle and kept a comment, that the CO of the Brandenburgers kept recruiting National Socialists into his unit. He was valueable, but his loyalty and state of mind was questionable after the coup.

"We also have the G46 finally ready for duty. The designers from Mauser and H&K perfected the design of the StG45. This one will make all Bolt-Action Rifles obsolete. Defenitely better than the M14 and SKS. Not quite on the level of the FN FAL, but we are catching up. Denmark want's to buy a few. And we are buying their old Krag-Jørgensen cheaply to arm our allies. The and the Finns are trading their MP's directly for our StG's and Battle-Rifles. We didn't manage to make a good improvement upon the Papasha yet."

The General felt a bit disapointed at that.

"We didn't manage to make a decent copy of a 26 years old finnish MP and the standard issue russian MP?"

"No. Our german solutions are mostly more sophisticated, but the MP's are just not the strenght of our engineers. But at least, the old 40 is easy to manufacture."

"Peiper, you know how things are in the east. If they don't hurry, we will loose men. Threaten them to work. Remind them, that I consider promoting Model to a secondary assingnment as the armnament-minister. If they don't work, they get a less tolerant oversight.

The former SS-Soldier grinned at that.

"Yes, Sir. If you would follow me, we can get to the real reason for the visit."

Both walked further through the facility while passing by countless guards from the Luftwaffe Ground Forces. Originally another stupid idea of Göring, but Kesselring finally started transforming them into something useful. Even though Rundstedt saw the continuous intermixing of responsibilities between Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine and Heer with doubt, he held back a professional judgement until he would see if it works out under a more competent leadership. The USMC seemed to work just fine for the Yanks, so the OKW considered to give Raeder his own 'Marines'.

"So, tell me about this "Stargate"-Device.", the General asked, while the duo walked deeper into the underground-complex.

"We don't know much. It was found in Egypt, after we disarmed the Italian loyalists. Mussolini wanted to ship it into a museum in Italy, after they plundered a recently discovered ancient grave. It caught our interest, because it is made out of an utterly alien alloy."

"Alien?"

Both officers arrived at a security checkpoint and were quickly let through without complaints. The guards knew, who the two were and didn't bother doing the obligatory check for explosives, hidden blades or any of the multitude of toys the MI6 had at it's disposal.

"Part's of it are not in our Period-System. There is Tungsten, Iron, some Uranium and the 'wires' are made out of these strange superconducting metals that are ocassionally found in Korea. However, there are some metallic elements, that don't exist on earth and the Element Zero."

Element Zero.

With his limited, but existing knowledge of chemistry, Rundstedt knew that was strange. Because there couldn't be an Element with no weight.

"It is confusing to say the least. It fu... tampers with the gravity itself. Our scientists already try to find a way to make a Tank floating. If they magage to do that, we can maybe dust off the Maus."

The two reached the the giant underground-chamber with the Artifact they were talking about. It was a ring, 10 Metres in diameter.

"Don't mention that in the official reports. I don't want Speer and Raeder to get unrealistic ideas. His Naval Infantry is already wasting men, that should fight at the Eastern Front. This Project stays inside OKW and Luftwaffe. If you find practical use for Element Zero, I will direct more funds."

"I will give the order to the secretary, later.", Peiper confirmed.

The chamber containing the artifact was really huge and it was filled with scientific equipment, but also with many crates obviously containing weapons, equiment and uniforms.

"Why are you keeping so many crates in a laboratory?", Rundstedt asked with slight confusion.

"This facility isn't just reserved for this project. Everything above the surface is a nightmare to guard. The NKVD already stole plans for the A4 and Kanaris decided, that it won't happen again. Trust me, no one get's through that elevator without someone noticing.

Both Officers noted, that a slightly overweight man in his fourtkes approached them.

"Grüßgott.", he greeted the two.

Rundstedt grimaced.

An overweight Bavarian. No, not only some former NSDAP opportunist, it had to be a Bavarian too, as if God himself conspired, that the old man may only meet scientist he wouldn't get along with.

Peiper, having swallowed all that Nationalist Nazi-Bullshit, didn't mind at all, but as an East Prussian, the old General was struggling to understand the Southern German through that annoying accent.

"I'm Doctor Jakobs. Head scientist of the Stargate-Project."

The Doc seemingly struggled to raise his Hand with out shouting "Heil Hitler!", but managed to offer Rundstedt a handshake. Already 4 Years, but the old bad habits of the german people were only fading slowly.

Gerd accepted the offer out of politeness and because he just wanted to get over with it.

"A joy to meet you, Mister Rundstedt. I assure you, the rescources directed to this project will pay off. The 7 Reactors are running smoothly and we will be able to begin the test in a few minutes."

Jakobs gesticulated towards the control-room.

"The risk of this is unknown, so I don't recommend staying in here during the course of the activation. The control-room will be much more safe."

"Why are the guards staying?"

"We presume it is a kind of transportation-device, but we don't know anything else. My theory is, that this device is used to warp gravity in a way, that enables the user to travel far distances in short time. I think, Element Zero plays a keyrole. This could enable us to understand the forces of gravity completely. However, since I assume it is for transportation, there might be something living on the other side and we have to be sure."

"Then I will stay with the men.", Rundstedt decided, wich earned him look of respect from the Soldiers, tasked with risking their lives.

"Peiper, please hand me a Sturmgewehr."

The boy opened one of the crates, took one of the rifles , loaded it and gave it to the Marshal.

Without another delay the overjoyed Bavarian got to the contol-room, to begin the test and the guards took defensive position, with the General at the front.

Rundstedt couldn't understand, what exactly the scientist found so interesting in science. It was so dry and routinized. Nothing compared to the thrill provided by nature, sports and military life.

Mentally he made a note to order some books about chemistry. As soon as Stalin gives up, science sounded like a nice productive and boring hobby for the retirement. Gardening was fun, but without Army-Groups to command, the old man might have to get another activity to kill time, until his time comes.

"Start power-input!", the scientist yelled across the hall and someone pulled a lever on the wall.

With joy, Rundstedt saw, how absolutely nothing happened. He could just go back to the Eastern Front, give a slightly reduced subsidisement. And just send some other Marshal from the OKW to the next inspection.

He wanted to turn around and go, but he realized, that he wasn't moving. Despite walking. When he looked down, he sas the reason.

The Gravity was gone and the Ring shimmered with a blua aura, like a giant blue eye staring right at him.

Then, he felt an abrupt pull and heard the Guards retreating from the anomaly that started to lift all the crates and laboratory-equipment in the air. After realizing, that struggling againts the non-existance of gravity was just as futile as struggling against it's existance, Rundstedt stopped it in order to preserve some kind of style in his helpless state.

"Shut it down!", both Peiper and the General shouted together.

"We can't! The reactors only activated it. The Gate has an internal energy-scource."

It was too late.

While the guards were able to hold onto a few pipes and the ground, Gerd quickly knew the Artifact would proceed with whatever it was doing.

With one heavy pull, both Rundstedt and all the crates in the room flew into thr blue hole...

... ... ... ...

Because I have no idea what to put into the authors notes, so I just write down random things. Story Ideas, Notes to this story and other Random I made (Rundstedt-Verse) WW2 AU, because History is sometimes unrealistic and because it's fun. (But I admit political correctness played it's part.)

I considered creating some Alternate ME-Humanity fic with Imperial Germany as a Superpower. But not in the way of world-domination.

Other major powers would be the Russian Federation (including the glorious leader Power-President Putin), Maoist China, America (just as jingoistic as today), the Commonwealth, France and the African Union. First Contact would be made with the Geth short after Germany landing on the moon and discovering a Prothean Archive, whose activation is noticed by a Geth-Patrol exploring the Sol-System. That happens somewhere in the early 70's.

In 2021, the already described and still splinetered Humanity (whose States all have Interstellar Colonies) and their Geth-Allies encounter the Turians, when they attack the only North-Korean Colony of all places.

Of course the supreme Glorious Leader Kim-Jong Un will beat them back personally, riding on a Cyborg-Unicorn, swinging a red Lightsabre...

No seriously, I would treat all involved factions (and ideologies) fairly. I am Maoist, so naturally I would involve the communist POW, but the focus would be still on a neutral perspective of an Alternate History. Maybe it would piss off a few of the Americans, but I have already grown used to being called "Evil" for expressing my opinion.

But I probably won't write this, because storys of this scale aren't my style.

I wouldn't complain if someone uses my ideas, though. ;)

And I made WW2 of Mass Effect a bit alternative too, but not to the same degree as Rundstedt's.

For the sake of storytelling.


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